The story so far…
Ties That Bind begins twenty years earlier. At an Amish birthing center, a single Englisch college student, Brandi Nash, gives birth to a daughter as a fire engulfs the building. A few minutes later in a nearby room, an Amish woman, Lovina Brenneman, gives birth to twins, a girl and a boy. The midwife and Lovina’s husband, Isaac, struggle to get the women and three babies to safety.
Chapter 2 of Ties That Bind moves forward twenty years, and Ariana Brenneman is trying to buy an abandoned café so she can help support her large family. She and her twin brother, Abram, have been working and saving for years to purchase it. As time is running out, Ariana’s one-time friend Quill Schlabach offers to help her conduct a benefit to raise money, but Ariana wants nothing to do with him. Five years ago he broke her heart when he left Summer Grove in the middle of the night, taking with him Frieda, Ariana’s closest friend. Although Ariana has moved on and is seeing Rudy, a young man she cares for deeply, she resents how Quill and Frieda deceived and betrayed her.
Quill tries to win Ariana’s trust, knowing that if she will act on his ideas, she will raise the money she needs. Although Quill continues to conceal why he left with Frieda, he longs for healing between Ariana and himself. But his main purpose for being in Summer Grove is to help an unhappy, disillusioned family leave the Amish—Ariana’s eldest sister, Salome, and her family.
Ariana lets down her guard and trusts Quill’s guidance. Although Rudy has reservations, he backs her as she, Quill, and Abram hold a benefit, which raises the needed money.
While Ariana and Abram are focused on the café, their brother Mark sees a college performance in a nearby city and is struck by how much one actor looks like Salome. When Mark tells their Mamm, she seems concerned.
Lovina and Isaac ask Quill to investigate the background of this young woman. Quill obtains information that indicates the woman, Skylar Nash, is probably Isaac and Lovina’s biological daughter. He contacts Skylar’s parents, Brandi Nash and Nicholas Jenkins, and a DNA test confirms that she’s not related to Brandi or Nicholas. The test also reveals that Skylar has drugs in her system.
Lovina struggles with the knowledge that her biological daughter seems so lost, and Nicholas, an atheist, is appalled that his daughter has been raised in an insulated, religious society. When he discovers that the midwife knew the two girls might have been accidentally switched at birth and did nothing about it, he threatens to sue her unless Ariana spends a year with him and Brandi, cut off from the Amish community. And Nicholas gives Skylar a choice—time in rehab or time with her biological family. Otherwise he will cut off all financial support.
When Ariana learns that she’s not a Brenneman and that Quill helped uncover the truth, she once again feels betrayed by him and asks him never to contact her again.
Ties That Bind ends with Ariana leaving Summer Grove with Brandi and Nicholas to spend a year with them. And Quill picks up Skylar, confiscates the drugs she tries to hide, and drives her toward the Brennemans’ home.
For a list of main characters in the Amish of Summer Grove series, see the Main Characters list at the end of the book.